How Poor Office Design Contributes to Work Stress

With so many office design trends popping up, it’s easy to just pick what’s currently popular without thinking too much about how it’ll turn out. Without careful planning, however, it becomes equally easy to become a victim of poor office design. For example, even with the best trends in commercial interior design in Melbourne, simply implementing these trends without thought is truly not enough.

Just because you found an innovative concept does not mean you’ll be able to execute it properly. So, before you make any significant changes to your overall work design, whether it’s with the workstations or the lounge area, remember to factor in all the important variables to prevent any of these issues from happening:

Lack of available space for visitors

Now, it’s not uncommon for many companies to hire a number of remote workers, freelancers, and contract employees. It’s true that not everyone needs a desk and a chair, but when you’re designing your office, you need to make sure there’s a place for them to sit and work comfortably whenever they need to come into the office. When a remote worker often gets relegated to, let’s say, the conference room, chances are they would often be asked to leave whenever there’s a larger group that needs to use the space for one reason or another. Not only will they be unable to get their job done on time, the constant seat shuffling can be disruptive to everyone else in the office as well. So, to solve this issue, provide a few hot desks to maximize available space, efficiency, and productivity.

Overcrowded spaces that create misunderstandings

It’s no secret that crowded workplaces cause tensions and tempers to go through the roof, especially when teams are trying to reach a certain goal or quota. If you ever decide to give the open-office concept a try, make sure it’s not hard for everyone to walk around without bumping into each other. If you have 30 workers and 30 individual desks, space them out properly to make things a little less cramped. When desks are placed too close together, personal space tends to overlap and that could lead to bigger problems in the long run.

Even if you don’t have a lot of floor space, there are other office designs that will work better for you other than an open-office layout. Hot desking, for example, will allow you to free up some square footage. Desk neighborhoods can also make things a lot less stressful. The key here is to make sure there’s enough space for everyone to work comfortably and in peace. Space utilization can do wonders as long as it won’t affect your employees’ level of comfort.

Finally, when there’s lots of distractions around – constant phone ringing, client meetings, and basically everyone just moving around trying to get things done – it can affect people’s concentration. While open spaces are effective in certain workplaces, it’s still important to have one or two designated quiet rooms. So, make sure to create a few quiet areas that can be booked whenever needed so employees can have somewhere they can handle their tasks away from the usual workplace buzz.